Isaiah
Let them approach; then let them speak.+
Let us come together for judgment.
2 Who has raised up someone from the sunrise,*+
Calling him in righteousness to His feet,*
To hand over nations to him
And to make him subdue kings?+
Who reduces them to dust before his sword,
Like windblown stubble before his bow?
3 He pursues them, passing along unhindered
Over paths that his feet have not traveled.
4 Who has acted and done this,
Summoning the generations from the beginning?
5 The islands have seen it and have become afraid.
The ends of the earth began to tremble.
They draw near and come forward.
6 Each one helps his companion
And says to his brother: “Be strong.”
7 So the craftsman strengthens the metalworker;+
The one who flattens with the forge hammer
Strengthens the one hammering at the anvil.
He says about the soldering: “It is good.”
Then it is fastened with nails so that it will not topple over.
8 “But you, O Israel, are my servant,+
You, O Jacob, whom I have chosen,+
The offspring* of Abraham my friend,+
9 You, whom I took from the ends of the earth,+
And you, whom I called from its most distant parts.
10 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.+
Do not be anxious, for I am your God.+
I will fortify you, yes, I will help you,+
I will really hold on to you with my right hand of righteousness.’
11 Look! All those getting enraged against you will be put to shame and humiliated.+
Those who fight with you will be brought to nothing and perish.+
12 You will search for men who struggle with you, but you will not find them;
The men at war with you will become as something nonexistent, as nothing at all.+
13 For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand,
The One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’+
14 Do not be afraid, you worm* Jacob,+
You men of Israel, I will help you,” declares Jehovah, your Repurchaser,+ the Holy One of Israel.
You will tread down the mountains and crush them
And make the hills like chaff.
17 “The needy and the poor are seeking water, but there is none.
Their tongue is dry from thirst.+
I, Jehovah, will answer them.+
I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.+
I will turn the wilderness into a reedy pool of water
And the waterless land into springs of water.+
In the desert plain I will plant the juniper tree,
Together with the ash and the cypress tree,+
20 So that all people may see and know
And pay attention and understand
That the hand of Jehovah has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.”+
21 “Present your case,” says Jehovah.
“Produce your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
22 “Produce evidence and tell us the things that will happen.
Or declare to us the things that are coming.+
Yes, do something, good or bad,
So that we may be amazed when we see it.+
Anyone who chooses you is detestable.+
26 Who told about this from the beginning, so that we could know,
Or from times past, so that we could say, ‘He is right’?+
Indeed, no one announced it!
No one declared it!
No one heard anything from you!”+
27 I was the first to say to Zion: “Look! Here they are!”+
And to Jerusalem I will send a bearer of good news.+
28 But I kept looking, and there was no one;
There was not one among them to give advice.
And I kept asking them to reply.
29 Look! All of them are a delusion.*
Their works are nothing.